The Art of Sustainability: Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Last year, spoken word/hip-hop theatre artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph hit my radar with his Life is Living festival, which seemed to involve every arts group in Houston under the sun. Given the broad range of art and activities, I found it somewhat challenging to fully wrap my head around the concept of sustainability and “environmental crime” expressed through urban performance… though was undoubtedly intrigued. To see the festival as research and the genesis of a future project about sustainability in our Third Ward community is even more fascinating. Now Joseph is back to continue his collab with Mitchell Center via the performance red, black & GREEN: a blues, so I thought it a grand opportunity to get the nitty gritty on the upcoming show directly from those most intimately involved. I’ve invited my dear friend and colleague Nicole Laurent, Communications and Special Projects Director, University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, to help illuminate what I should expect to see this weekend:

You (and everyone else) should make a point to be at Joseph’s long awaited performance, red, black & GREEN: a blues. Last year at this time, you remember Bamuthi’s Life Is Living: Houston festival that took place in Emancipation Park and rocked the Third Ward. It featured a live performance by the legendary and a personal favorite, Talib Kweli, as well as demonstrations and displays by more than 40 local organizations. Chances are, you are involved with or know at least one of them well. Life Is Living was also a research project, the documentation of which will be seen in red, black & GREEN: a blues.

The world premiere of red, black & GREEN: a blues opened to a packed house earlier this month at Yerba Buena Art Center in San Francisco, I was extremely lucky to have been in attendance, and it was a powerful experience, resulting in rave reviews from critics and the public alike. What was surprising and remarkable was the amount of Houston imagery that had made its way into the final piece, and which will travel nationwide as rbG:b tours to such places as the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), the Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY) and many other illustrious venues.

The Houston imagery seen in rbG:b was accumulated during Bamuthi’s multi-year residency hosted by the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. The Mitchell Center initially developed a relationship with Joseph in 2007 when he was invited to be a part of their Systems of Sustainability: Art, Innovation, Action (S.O.S.),symposium, which explored creative enterprise as an integral tool for cultural growth and social change. What resulted was a long term relationship dedicated to local community engagement – one that inspired this internationally-celebrated artist to develop a new work that pays tribute to Houston’s dynamic, quirky, and deeply rich culture and community.

red, black & GREEN: a blues, which refers to the red, black and green of the Pan-African flag and the verdant natural resources of the African continent, addresses a question relevant to all communities across the country, and none more so appropriately and poignantly than Third Ward, Texas.

How do we sustain?

The piece begins with an immersive onstage viewing of the installation/set designed by visual artist Theaster Gates. It is made entirely from found and recycled materials and each module/wall represents four cities where Life Is Living has taken place. The audience is invited to interact with and around the four walls that ultimately provide the framework for a small cabin when assembled together. One wall specifically represents the iconic shotgun home prevalent in Third Ward, TX which is also the basis of Project Row Houses, a non-profit arts organization established by African-American artists and community activists that aims to create community through the celebration of art, African American history and culture. Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Tommy Shepherd, Traci Tolmaire and Theaster Gates, move amid the set, readjusting, rearranging and transforming the space into familiar and unfamiliar environments. The audience experience is intimate, authentic and sacred. It is clearly an honor to be an invited guest in this personal and fragile ecosystem.

A natural progression takes audience members to their seats and the performance continues as Joseph and his fellow performers tackle the meaning of sustainability through passionately re-enacted narratives, conversations, songs and impressions of real life experiences with characters plucked directly from communities where an ecological crisis is less of a threat than violent crime and inadequate education. Some of Houston’s most vibrant and vital community members shine through, including a legendary social activist, a kind-hearted patroness of an urban garden network, and a man with an affinity for flowers.

It is an exhilarating and interactive performance of dance, text and video that evokes a visceral reaction. I was inspired, I had hope for the future and I had never been more proud of Houston. During lunch the day after the opening in San Francisco, Bamuthi expressed he’d been concerned that I was okay (I was seated in the front row for the performance the night prior) as he had noticed I left with tears in my eyes.

Believing it is our responsibility to strive for sustainability on micro and macro levels, knowing the arts can play an important role, and ever championing Houston’s unique (and often overlooked) charms, I’m sold.